AE Basics Extras: More Repetition PART ONE

AE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Having recently completed a training course, Andrew Devis was asked about some more advanced uses for the repeater tool when working with shape layers in After Effects. Andrew has produced 2 'Extra' tutorials to go with his earlier tutorial on the repeater. In this first 'Extra' tutorial, he shows how to create a simple man with shapes, repeat him across screen and then down screen with a couple of repeating options to create different looks and then how to scale the whole animation on the screen to give space for additional motion graphics work.

In the next tutorial, he will show how to create shapes from text, how to rotate that shape into a circle and then how to move the circle into a line and how to create other very interesting looks with the use of the repeater tool.

AE Basics 62: Export 8 - Understanding Pre-renderPlay VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 62: In this tutorial, Andrew Devis explains what Pre-rendering is and why it would be useful in your projects as well as what to look for when pre-rendering to ensure you don't have problems later in your production.

AE Basics 63: Persistent Disc Cache (CS6 & Above)Play VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 63: In this tutorial, Andrew Devis explains a significant 'under the hood' improvement in CS6 which reduces the need for 'Pre-rendering' and makes the operation of After Effects much faster. These improvements are called the 'Global Performance Cache' and the 'Persistent Disc Cache'. Andrew explains how these operate, options to use background rendering and the work-flow savings this offers.

AE Basics Extras: Butterfly Wing Text AnimationPlay VideoIn the first part of this two part AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis starts to show how to create a butterfly wing with text.
The purpose of these tutorials is to give additional hints and tips for text animation in After Effects. Items covered in this tutorial include, using the pen tool, paths, copying mask paths to shape layers, text along a path and path option, 3D layers, animation of a wing, loopOut expression and viewing your composition in a different viewer.
In the second part of this tutorial Andrew will go on to complete the animated butterfly in 3D and show how to have it fly around your screen.

AE Basics Extras: Butterfly Wing Text Animation Part TWOPlay VideoIn the second part of this two part AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis continues to build the butterfly in After Effects and then shows how to keep it 3D as it is formed.
Items covered in this tutorial include custom views, 3D and collapse transforms to keep items working in 3D once pre-composed, duplication and flipping layers, vertical type, text formatting, and complex animations with motion sketch. These tutorials will be valuable for anyone learning and developing text animation skills in After Effects.

AE Basics Extras: Caterpillar Text AnimationPlay VideoIn this AE Basics Extra tutorial, Andrew Devis shows some more text animation techniques by animating 'Caterpillar' text in After Effects. Andrew shows how to shape your text so that it curves from large to small to create a 'tail' for the text and then he shows how to set up and animate the path that the text will use. Andrew then goes on to lock the text to the animated path and continues by adding additional animators to give body movement to the animated text.
This is a helpful tutorial for anyone wanting to learn to use a wider range of options for text animation in After Effects.
Andrew will be following up with a similar but different tutorial looking at creating a flying butterfly text!

AE Basics 65: Expression Controllers PART TWOPlay VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 65: In this second follow-on tutorial, Andrew Devis continues to demonstrate how to apply a color Expression Controller to one part of the production and then how to quickly apply it to other parts of the same composition. He then goes on to show how to separate out parameters to two different control points of one Expression Controller finishing by controlling parts from different areas of the shape layer as you would in a composition which has multiple layers.

AE Basics Extras: More Repetition PART TWOPlay VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. In this second 'Extra' tutorial in the AE Basics series, Andrew Devis shows how to create shapes from text, how to rotate that shape into a circle, how to move the circle into a line and finally how to create other very interesting looks with the use of the repeater tool - including how to create spirals, make the shapes seem to come out at you from the screen and how to move and control these exciting options, all within the one layer.

AE Basics 64: Expression Controllers PART ONEPlay VideoAE Basics - A Creative COW series for new users of Adobe After Effects. Lesson 64: Expression Controllers are a way to simplify the animation controls for a given composition. Although some people are initially worried by the idea of using Expressions, using and controlling Expression Controllers is both easy and effective - especially so when dealing with complex animations.
In this tutorial, Andrew Devis explains how to use Expression Controllers in Adobe After Effects. Andrew starts by showing how to control a single parameter with one type of controller and then goes on to show how to separate two parameters with an array while applying an Expression Controller to one of those two separated controllers.